Silvana drops a paper on my desk. "The list of all the vacant warehouses within a two hundred mile radius. It's a long list. Apparently people don't look around for available warehouses before they build their own."

I pick up the stapled papers. "Shit. Needle meet haystack." I drop the list and lean back on my chair. Silvana pulls a chair up in front of my desk. It turns out he's a decent guy. He's honest and he works hard. Probably not the best guy to have your back in a stressful situation but who knows. I might be wrong about that too.

Silvana looks around to see who is in earshot. It's no one who would give a damn about our conversation. The precaution is simply because I am not supposed to be working on anything that has to do with Ten's undercover assignment. But then being told what I can and can't do has never stopped me before.

"So I talked to my brother's friend, the structural engineer." Silvana leans forward more. "He says there was one big project about five years ago that was farmed out to a foreign engineering firm because stateside there were just too many regulations to deal with."

My chair squeaks as I sit forward with interest.

"The guy didn't know many details except some rich guy bought a dried up mine. Silver, I think. It's out near the desert somewhere. It was all pretty hush hush. The rich guy had plans to build an entire living compound below ground. As far as the engineer knows, the project went off without a hitch. He's going to text me the general coordinates of the site when he gets them."

"Silvana, if we weren't sitting in the middle of the office, I'd kiss ya. Good work."

Silvana's cheeks puff out like pink balloons. Our bro moment is cut short when Clark bellows my name from his office doorway.

"Maddox, get in here. Now."

I look at Silvana. "Do you think he's going to ask me to lunch?"

Silvana laughs then stops. "Hey, speaking of lunch—weren't you supposed to—'

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I pull out my phone. There was one text from Tiffany. A string of question marks followed by an exclamation. "Yes. I was supposed to meet her for lunch . . . with her parents."

"Oh boy, then you might as well go into Clark's office first. I think that'll be the nice portion of your day."

I text Tiffany back. "Still at work. Captain Clark just summoned me into his office. Apologize to your parents for me." There is no return text, which speaks volumes.

I walk into Clark's office. He has his round elbow on the arm of his chair and he's gnawing on his thumbnail as he stares out the office window.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, sit down. I'm not going to lie, Maddox. I'm losing fucking sleep over Tennyson. I've never sent anyone undercover into such a deeply secretive situation." He pushes a homicide case file folder toward me. It sends a jolt of fear through me.

Clark senses his mistake. "No, it's not anything to do with Tennyson. Not technically. It's the file for the girl we found in the dumpster with her throat slashed. I thought her murder might lead us to this secret club. Turns out, it was a jealous boyfriend. The really fucked thing is I think if we could have gotten to her first, we could probably have gotten her to spill everything she knew about this Lace Underground."

I arch a brow at him. "Seriously? That's the really fucked up part?"

He waves his hand and sends several papers shuffling across his desk. "Other than her tragic, violent murder. You know what I mean. Don't try me today, Maddox. I'm not in the mood."

I raise my hands in surrender. "Not trying to try you. I just want my partner back." I just want Ten back, I repeat to myself. "So what about this girl?"

"It seems she disappeared for several months, then resurfaced. But her boyfriend slit her throat before we could get to her."

"Where is he? I want to talk to him. See what he knows."

"Leave it to the guys in homicide. They're questioning him now. You've got enough to deal with." He tossed me another file. "A private mail order delivery company seems to have discovered that illegal drug delivery pays better. Gonna need you to start tailing the trucks. Get evidence for a search warrant for the shipping warehouse."

I jam the folder under my arm. "Let me talk to the boyfriend."

"No. Leave it alone."

"Well fuck, Clark. Thanks for this lovely reassuring talk."

His face turns red with rage but I just blow past that fact. "You start by letting me know that you can't sleep because you're worried that you made a bad fucking decision and sent Ten into a dangerous situation by herself." I stand up and rest my fists on his desk as I stare down at him. "And she's alone. She's alone. By the way, if you think I'm getting one fucking wink of sleep, I've got news for you, I'm not. Maybe I should ring you up in the middle of the night and we can chat."

I expect to have him thunder his angry retort at me as I leave but he's quiet. I reach the door.

"I fucked up, Maddox." It's the first time since I've worked under his command that he's admitted he made a mistake. He once set the staff microwave on fire with his foil wrapped burrito and he blamed the 'goddamned microwave inventors' for the mishap.

An idea pops into my head as I reach for the door. I spin around. "Send me undercover on this."

Clark laughs dryly as he pulls a stick of gum from his desk. "As pretty as you are, I don't think you can pass as a young girl."

"Getting a little tired of being called pretty," I mutter.

"Huh?" He sticks the gum into his mouth.

"Nothing. I could be a club member. I know there's a budget for high end sting operations. Make me a billionaire."

He shakes his head. "Go stake out that shipping warehouse and catch some bad guys."

I walk out.

Silvana comes out of the lounge with a banana and can of cola. "Was it a pleasant meeting?" He points to the folder under my arm. "Our next assignment?"

I nod and hand it to him. "But first I'm going to head down to homicide."